Xylophone.



J.. C. DEAGAN.

XYLOPHONE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24 191?.

Patented Feb. 11, 1919.

arms cov. Puormunm. msmuwun. n. c.

JEFFERSON CLAUDE DEAGAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

XYLOPHONE.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 11, 1919.

Application led October 24, 1917. Serial No. 198,271.

To all @07mm t may concern Be it known that I, JEFFERSON CLAUDE DEAGAN, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented'a certain new and useful Improvement in Xylophones, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description.

My invention relatesl to musical instruments employing sound producing bars made of wood or metal or other vibrating material that are tuned to produce tones of a musical scale and resonators below or behind such bars. Such instruments are termed Xylophones. An increase in the normal temperature of the bars and resonators .will sharpen the pitch of the resonators to bring them out of sympathy or unison with the tones produced by the bars and a decrease from such temperature will atten the pitch of the resonators. I ett'ect compensation for impairment of the pitch of the resonators due to modifications in temperature by adjustmentt of the interrelation of the bars and resonators. This adjustment may be elected by simultaneously regulating the distances between the bottoms of the resonators and the bars or the efectiveness of the openings in the resonators that are adjacent the bars.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the resonators, as a group, are bodily moved toward and from the bars transversely of the bars whereby the bottoms of the resonators are not only adjusted with respect to the bars but the spaces between the tops of the resonators and the bars are also regulated to modify the effectiveness of the openings in the resonators that are adjacent the bars.

I will explain my invention more fully by reference to the accom anying drawing showing the preferred em odiment thereof in which Figure 1 is a plan view showing an instrument of the Xylophone type with an intermediate portion broken away; Fig. 2 is a view on line 2 2 of Fig. l; Fig. 3 is a view on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, a bar and a resonator being shown by dotted lines; and Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a part of the adjusting means.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the different figures.

The instrument includes sound producing bars 1 each provided with a tubular resonator 2 beneath the same. These resonators are usually open at their upper ends and closed at their lower ends. The bars are so tuned that they will produce tones of a musical scale. They are suitably mounted upon strings 3 that pass through eyes Il that project upwardly from the side rails of a mounting frame 5. mounting frame carry eyes 6 to which the strings 3 are secured. The mounting frame has depending portions 7 at the ends thereof. Ledges 8 are at the lower ends of the depending portions 7. Adjusting thumb screws 9 project downwardly through the end rails of the mounting frame and are in threaded connection with such end rails. Adjusting thumb screws 10 project upwardly through the ledges 8 of the mounting frame and are in threaded connection with such ledges. Each screw 9 desirably has a screw 10 in vertical alinement therewith. The resonators 2 are disposed between and are in fixed connection with the rails 1l that support the resonators. These rails 11 have downward continuations 12 that rest upon the upper ends of the screws 10, the screws 9 being turned into engagement with the top edges of the rails 11 to prevent the frame from rising.

The spaces between the rails 11 and the end rails of the mounting frame 5 and the spaces between the lower ends of the continuations 12 and the ledges 8 are suhcient to enable a bodily vertical adjustment of the rails and the resonators coupled therewith to simultaneously vary the spaces between the resonators and bars thereby to compensate for the usual wide variations in temperature that the instrument may encounter. The rails enter vertical slots 111 that guide them in their vertical movements.

Let it be assumed that the instrument is adjusted to have the resonators in correct sympathy with the tones produced by the bars in a temperature of 68 Fahrenheit, it being understood that the screws 9 and 10 hold the resonators in such relation to the bars' that the desired quantity of tones is producible. It the temperature rises suiciently from 68D Fahrenheit to throw the resonators appreciably out of sympathy with the tones produced by the bars the resonators are bodily raised to put the resonators into correct sympathy with the tones produced by the bars and it there is a sufficient decrease in temperature to throw the resona- The end rails of theA tors out of sympathy with the tones produced by the bars the resonators are lowered to bring the resonators into sympathy, these adjustments being effected by the obvious manipulation of the screws 9 and 10;, Tof

each rail 11 and a scale 14 for eachindeX.

The scale marks at the lower end Vof the instrument are Wider apart than those at the upper end, the difference in the spaces 'between the scale marks at the two ends of the instrument corresponding to the variation lin lengths of the resonators. The scale marks are thus differently spaced at oppocopi'es of this patent may be obtained for site ends of the instrument because the adjustment must be greater at the lower than at the. upper end thereof.

of my invention I do notowish to be limited Y .tothe precise details of construction shown as changes may readily be made Without departing froml the spirit of my invention, but having'thus described my invention I claim asV new` and Vdesire to secure by Letters Patent the following g- AV Xylophone including a group of sound producing bars; a group of resonator elements for said bars; and Ymechanism for adjusting One of said -groupstoward Yand from the other transversely of the bars.- Y

In witness whereof, I'hereunto subscribe my name this twentieth day of October A, D. 1917.

' JEFFERSON CLAUDE DEAGAN.

five cents each, by addressing` the Commissioner of Patente Washington, D. C. Y Y 

